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April 20, 2013 By: Jimmy McGee
The Nexus 7, combined with the Jelly Bean operating system, has finally made the Android tablet accessible and initiative. But there are a few things that aren’t quite so obvious, unless you know where they are. All these tips are standard functionality and don’t require any rooting or modifications to your tablet.
In this video, XDA Developer TV Producer and newcomer Rob give you five tips you (possibly) don’t already know about modern Android devices. You’ll probably all know at least one of them, some of you will know three or four of them but we’ll be surprised if you know all them. I guarantee that if you know all of these tips Rob will give you your money back!*
*XDA Developers TV cannot be held responsible for such claims the content creator makes. And since this video is free, there’s a whole load of irony you’ll need to digest before you ask for a refund
April 16, 2013 By: egzthunder1
We have had some rather long running projects on XDA over the years. Some involve simple, yet elegant things like theming engines (UCCW, VR Theme, etc), while others focus a bit more on the functionality side of things. The case for recovery images is one such area that needs to be constantly evolving due to the evolution of the devices and their inner workings. Pushing an insecure recovery into a device is not always easy. Or rather, it is not as simple as some people make it be. Lots of things and information are required even before beginning the process of loading it onto a new device. For XDA Recognized Developer Dees_Troy and other members of Team Win, this has been the case for a while now, but they always tend to come out on top.
TWRP (Team Win Recovery Project) is an open recovery project that has been around for a couple of years now. It is a great alternative to the ever popular CWM if you are looking for something with a bit more flair and functionality. This new version, which stands at 2.5.0.0, is loaded with updates and fixes. These changes make the overall experience smoother and more enjoyable. For instance as of version 2.4.0.0, TWRP was given the ability to turn off the screen to save battery while in recovery. Version 2.5 takes that concept a step further and not only allows the user to select the timeout, but now even the screen brightness can be tweaked as well. On top of that, partition handling and selection has been vastly improved, and it is now easier to use thanks to the implementation of a scrollable list. And as if that weren’t enough, not being in the Android UI should not mean that you cannot enjoy a good looking recovery with our ever-growing-pixel-packed screens. So, a theme for 1080 x 1920 was added for devices like the Xperia Z, HTC One, and others. And speaking of which, the recovery is now available for the new beast from HTC… the One.
Please do keep in mind that the new version is still undergoing somewhat heavy testing and there are some bugs that you may run into. On the other hand, if you manage to get this installed, rooting the One will be as simple as using the built in tool to inject SuperSU. Please take it for a spin and report feedback and bugs that you may run into.
Team Win Recovery Project 2.x, or twrp2 for short, is a custom recovery built with ease of use and customization in mind. It’s a fully touch driven user interface – no more volume rocker or power buttons to mash. The GUI is also fully XML driven and completely theme-able. You can change just about every aspect of the look and feel.
You can find more information in the original thread.
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[Thanks to OEM Relations Manager jerdog for the tip!]
April 15, 2013 By: Samantha
Nearly every Android Jellybean 4.2 user will be familiar with DashClock, the lock screen widget app that allow users to see quite a bit of handy information upon quick glance. Pre-bundled with the widget comes your weather, missed calls and texts, Gmail, and your next calendar appointment. Now you can add your call log and network statistics to the list with DashCallLog and DashNet by XDA Forum Member apus2.
Both DashCallLog and DashNet are both extensions of the DashClock widget for Android 4.2. DashCallLog displays the call log of the phone and can be filtered to include the latest call, last incoming calls, outgoing calls, and calls you may have missed. Of each call, the call type (i.e. incoming, outgoing, missed), caller name, date and time, and duration will be displayed. Both the date format and individual call symbols can be personalized with multiple options available. Once selected, this opens up the call history.
DashNet is another handy DashClock extension that simply informs you of statistics regarding your network, be it WiFi or mobile connection. It’s an expandable widget that conveniently shows SSID, IP, and speed if you’re connected to WiFi. For mobile connections, the widget tells you your connection type (e.g. UMTS and GPRS) and operator name. Once tapped, the app displays a more extensive list of statistics such as signal strength, gateway, and network activity.
The open nature of DashClock allows for some pretty nifty and useful extensions to be developed by developers out there such as apus2′s DashCallLog and DashNet here. So if you would like to check them out, you can visit the application threads for DashCallLog and Dashnet.
April 14, 2013 By: egzthunder1
One of the key advancements in the mobile industry is the fact that people want to break away from the chains of a desktop (and even laptop) computer. Not having to carry 5-7 lbs of tech on your back is always an interesting point to consider when deciding what you want to get for work/play. However, since our devices are not (yet) fully capable of replacing our computers, the best thing we can do is try to utilize what we have and make ourselves as comfortable as humanly possible. After all, even if it is a pain, being able to use your PC from a distance with wireless devices is not nearly as bad or cumbersome when you are sitting in your most comfortable couch. The only issue with this is that you need to spend money on wireless devices (such as keyboard and mice) to do what you normally do on a PC, and these are not always cheap. If you are reading this article and are on XDA, you more than likely have a wireless-enabled mobile device. Why spend more money when you have something perfectly capable of accomplishing said task?
XDA Forum Member monect released his own version of a wireless interface to control a PC, effectively turning your phone/tablet/phablet into a keyboard/mouse/joystick/keypad all-in-one combo. Monect uses WiFi or Bluetooth to connect to your computer via a sever application that needs to be installed in the target computer. Once that is installed, the device can act like a wireless mouse or a keyboard, just like most other apps of its kind. What truly sets this one apart from the others is the fact that it can also be used as a controller for different types of games such as racing, FPS, RPG, and more. Each type of game has its own different set up with familiar layout for those who are used to having different kinds of controllers for each game style. And it is not just the layout, the app makes full use of the on board sensors to provide the user the ultimate experience when playing (accelerometer, G-sensor, gyro, etc). For instance, FPS mode enables the gyroscope sensor, allowing you to aim at your target, while Race mode uses the G-sensor to enable steering. And these are just a few perks in this loaded all-in-one goodness of a control app.
The app is freely available in the Play store and has no special requirements such as root (other than the installation of the server side app on your computer, that is). The only thing that the dev is looking for at this point is feedback regarding bugs and suggestions on how to improve it. Please take it for a spin and share your experience with the dev.
Monect is a free app that allows you to control the PC over wi-fi or bluetooth,
You can find more information in the original thread.
Want something published in the Portal? Contact any News Writer.
April 14, 2013 By: egzthunder1
HotSpot functionality: the forbidden apple of mobile telecommunications. Being able to share your Internet connection with others or even with your own multiple devices is something that we did have always desired, particularly those who hate the idea of paying a “convenience/access fee” to a carrier. The feature/idea of tethering from our mobile devices is not new, and in fact has been around since well before the PDA Phone came to be. However, ever since its implementation, both manufacturers and carriers have been on a crusade to limit or flat out eliminate this functionality from our devices. Android comes with native wireless tethering capabilities, which again, are disabled, blocked, or removed from the OS for a wide variety of reasons. Well, if you fall under this category, XDA Elite Recognized Developer Chainfire can help you with his latest work.
HotSpot Control will allow you to use this functionality as long as it is present on the device (meaning, it was not removed from the OS). Normally, the native app can be disabled or hidden to favor other things such as carrier apps, which could prompt you to sign up for tethering monthly services. What’s more, there are times when the functionality will be blocked regardless of whether you have a carrier or not. In this particular case (and what really prompted Chainfire to work on this app), the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 has a “feature” which disables the option to create a tethered connection to other devices if the SIM card is missing from the device. This app will allow you to activate and configure your hotspot regardless of whether you have a SIM card in there or not, or even if the native component is hidden from sight. Oh, and unlike other apps for tethering, root is not a requirement here.
Do keep in mind that this app was intended to allow the connection to be established between the devices. This app was not created as a means to bypass any software locks your carrier may have implemented to charge you for hotspot usage. There are various practical uses for this, so if you have something that requires a tethered connection to your device, now you can do it. As always, if you have any feedback or run into any bugs, please leave the information in the thread. Logs welcome.
THIS IS NOT DESIGNED TO BEAT YOUR CARRIER’S TETHERING PROTECTION - For some people it does (it depends on how that protection is implemented) but this is not what the app was made for. It’s no use complaining that it doesn’t do this for you.
You can find more information in the original thread.
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[Thanks to OEM Relations Manager jerdog for the tip!]
April 10, 2013 By: Jimmy McGee
One of Android’s biggest features is widgets. You can view your email on your homescreen without actually opening the email app. This novel concept will reach Fruitland at some point, right after Apple patents the idea. Of course, Android widgets are not just limited to email. And they are not just limited to your homescreen.
With Dashclock you can put a bunch of information on your lock screen. In this video, XDA Developer TV Producer Kevin shows you how to set up Dashclock and its various extensions. With Dashclock, there are almost no limits to what you can do from your homescreen. Check out this video.
April 6, 2013 By: rstanford
Altering your home screen has been made simpler thanks to the work of XDA Forum Member Buzz Plan. Buzz Launcher, which is only available for phones with Android 4.0.1 or greater, allows users to quickly download, apply, and share home screens. The application also makes it possible to create your own home screen using features such as Multi-Wallpapers and My Icons.
The Buzz Custom Widget add-on gives users access to clock, date, and battery widgets to include in their own personalized home screens. If the stock look of the widgets doesn’t leave you satisfied, you can modify them to look any way you want. Home screens that you create can easily be shared thanks to a one-touch upload feature.
Buzz Launcher also has other features such as:
￭ MULTI-GRID: you can designate different grids for each screen (up to 12×12)
￭ MANAGE FOLDERS: you can make folders in app drawers/Homescreen, modify folder image, and resize folders
￭ MANAGE APPS: features for viewing most frequently used apps, recently installed apps, and hiding apps
￭ MANAGE APP DRAWERS: Screen concept is applied to app drawers so you can manage apps by screens
￭ GESTURE SUPPORT: Glide up, Glide down, Double tab and more.
￭ Previewing is supported for various view settings.
If creating home screens is not your thing, there are more than 300 available to choose from—and they are all provided through Homepack Buzz Service. Installing a home screen only requires you to download the one that you want. Buzz Launcher automatically sets everything up once the download is complete. Linked apps can then be downloaded at your own leisure.
There are many useful and created home screens available for use with this application. Many of the changes that Buzz Launcher users have made are reminiscent of Rainmeter. So if you’re in the market for a new launcher or simply just want to try something novel, more information can be found in the original thread.
April 4, 2013 By: Jimmy McGee
He knows when you are sleeping. He knows when you’re awake. He knows when you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake. Often this song is sung to children around the Christmas season, in an attempt to get children to behave. However, it could be easily applied to our Android devices.
XDA Forum Member ahikmat has a program to replace Santa in our little analogy. In this video, XDA Developer TV Producer TK reviews Wakelock Detector. TK shows off the application and gives his thoughts, so check out this app review.
April 3, 2013 By: egzthunder1
Notifications in Android are indeed a great thing to have. They come in handy for knowing exactly what is going on with many of our daily use apps. You get things like alarms, email , SMS, phone calls, and many other system and application related activities that you may need to be aware of. Having said that, there are always two sides to every coin and what can be useful for many, can indeed be quite an annoyance for others. There are people who need not keep track of every action that goes on in the device and definitely hate the intrusiveness of certain apps that use notifications as means of advertising. If you see yourself as someone in the latter group, then XDA Forum Member mcnamaragio has something in store that you might be interested in.
Since Jelly Bean was introduced, notifications have been somewhat easier to manage than before. Most applications and system event notifications can be toggled on or off thanks to an added option in the settings of each app. However, considering how many apps the average user can hold in a device, doing this manually for each and every single app can become a burden and a time consuming ordeal quite quickly. NotificationOff gives you an all-in-one screen where all these toggles for every single application can be found. Instead of having to navigate through menus back and forth, you have all the on/off goodness you can handle in a single, simple UI. Simply choose your targets, knock off the pesky notifications, restart your device, and you are set!
The app is quite simple to use and can indeed be a rather useful tool to get rid of certain nags and annoyances coming from some apps. Keep in mind that this will only work on Jelly Bean (4.1) and up. Please test it out and report any feedback you may have.
Hello,
I want to introduce my application “Notifications Off” for controlling application notifications in a centralized way.
You can find more information in the original thread.
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March 28, 2013 By: egzthunder1
As our devices become more powerful, larger, and are filled with more and more software from the manufacturers (bloatware and some spyware); some things tend to take a hit that tend to make our experiences with our devices rather short lived. The battery is about the only thing in the entire technological salad that comprises our mobile devices that does not keep up with the rest. In this day and age, you will see similar sized batteries (in terms of capacity) to what you saw 2 years ago for far less power hungry devices. On top of that, as stated earlier, some software packages pre-installed do not help with your battery life either, which is why custom ROMs (particularly those of the AOSP variety) are a blessing as they are not loaded with the extra overhead. These extra apps are not only unnecessary, but many of them have a rather nasty side effect: They prevent your device from fully going to sleep when it has to.
Wakelocks have been around for quite some time (meaning they are nothing really new), and they are part of your overall Android experience. The wakelocks essentially will prevent certain apps from being totally killed by the device’s native memory management, allowing you to enjoy a faster response when opening apps, preventing your device from sleeping while you are in the middle of something, and even allowing you to do things with the screen off. As one would expect, there is no free lunch and keeping your device’s processor active has a toll on battery life. Determining what is responsible for these wakelocks is not always an easy or straight forward task because any given app could have more than 1 process keeping your device from sleeping. XDA Forum Member ahikmat has developed an app that allows you to determine which apps are causing the biggest wakelocks.
Wakelock Detector will group all processes causing wakelocks on a per app basis, which makes it easier to determine which ones are the biggest offenders. This is indeed a great tool for analysis of battery drain on devices suffering from constant power “bleeding.” Please leave some feedback for the dev in case you have any suggestions or run into any bugs.
Ever wondered why your smartphone screen doesn’t turn off automatically when it should have, the screen wakes up all of a sudden or you find your phone battery drained even when you exited apps and turned off the screen? This might be due to wakelock holding apps.
You can find more information in the original thread.
Want something published in the Portal? Contact any News Writer.
March 12, 2013 By: egzthunder1
Sony’s latest device, the Xperia Z, is one of those “difficult” devices to deal with, or at least its bootloader-locked variant. This last bit makes fun things like rooting into quite a challenge and an annoyance for many. Luckily, the thrills of getting new devices rooted and more functional are always enough to keep a few of our great devs up pulling all nighters in order to get the projects over and done. If you are one of the lucky owners of this handset and have been missing the ability to root, you are in luck because XDA Recognized Developer DooMLoRD brings us some interesting developments from the rooting front lines.
According to DooMLoRD, a dev by the name of XDA Forum Member goroh_kun, who was a key dev in the bootloader cracking of the Xperia X10, has an exploit to grant root level access to the Xperia Z. Several devs have looked at the exploit and tested it, thus successfully achieving root via this method. The steps are fairly straight forward, but there may be a couple of hiccups after the process is completed. For instance, there have been reports of NFC no longer working after applying the exploit. If this happens, the easy fix, according to goroh_kun, is to delete the /data/usf directory. Moreover, if you have an unlockable bootloader, its status may change after the exploit. Flashing back to stock via SEUS seems to solve this issue, but you will likely lose root by doing this.
If you don’t feel like applying the exploit by hand, XDA Recognized Developer Bin4ry also has gotten to work with the exploit. He added it to his already popular Root MANY ANDROID!, which is a script that can be used to root a wide variety of Android devices. The script includes many different exploits, all lumped into an easy to use package that will save you a few headaches. In this case, Bin4ry added goroh_kun’s exploit and also made a small tweak that eliminates the NFC error described above.
So, if you have a locked Z and want to root it, now is your chance. Please read all the instructions carefully if you are thinking of applying the raw exploit and make sure that you report any and all bugs that you may run into. Have fun and happy rooting!
Requirements:
Xperia Z with stock Sony JB firmware (as of now tested on: 10.1.D.0.317, 10.1.D.0.322, 10.1.A.1.350)
works on both locked/unlockable bootloaders! (waiting for reports from unlocked bootloader devices)
You can find more information in the original thread.
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[Thanks krabappel2548 for the tip!]
March 10, 2013 By: egzthunder1
Ahh, the joy of flashing! For us mobile, ORD-positive, addicts, there is no better feeling than that which comes after refreshing our devices with the newest leaks of the newest OS versions. Of course, not too many pleasures in this world come without having to make some sort of effort. In the case of flashing, the issue normally is that we tends to flood our storage with files upon files on top of more files, all of which can be confusing at times and flashing the wrong file could potentially have serious consequences. What if there were a way to automatically flash everything you want without having to dig around? If this sounds appealing, then XDA Forum Member richardddd may have a surprise in stock for you.
Autoflasher is a small and very light weight script, which essentially hunts down flashable ZIP files that fall under certain nomenclature. Instead of having to pre-organize everything in folders or having to go up and down throughout your storage folder(s), looking for the correct ROM and kernel to flash, autoflasher will do that for you. You simply define the naming structure of the file(s) that you intend to flash on your device and the script does the rest. It will find, lump, and flash all the files that are being requested with minimum to no input required from the end user. Most recoveries already offer such functionality (batch flashing) as well as other apps like Mobile Odin (in the case of Samsung devices). However, autoflasher does not even require you to go into recovery as it will do it by itself. The filters are fully definable and easy to set up.
Please be advised that you will need to be rooted and have TWRP installed on your device. Please take it for a spin, flash a few things, and share your experiences with the rest of this ORD-filled world of ours.
Im a flash junkie and I was getting tired browsing trough differend folders in my recovery to flash ROM, kernel, themes, tweaks etc – every time i wanted to update my ROM.
You can find more information in the original thread.
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March 4, 2013 By: Jimmy McGee
Linux 3.4 Kernel has been compiled for the Galaxy S Plus GT-i9001. XDA Developer TV Producer and News Corespondent Jordan reviews this and all the other important stories from this week on the XDA-Developers Portal. Jordan talks about the Windows RT Porting Guide for Windows 32-bit apps.
In Jelly Bean-related news, Jordan talks about an app that makes Jelly Bean Toggles available to all. Jordan talks about one of the latest alternative mobile operating systems and its history, Tizen. Pull up a chair and check out this video. And if you any news to report, feel free to contact any XDA News Writer.
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